Chartered CTA train derails in South Loop: 'We now have a unique story to tell'

CTA train derailment

Nancy Stone, Chicago Tribune

Firefighters help guide passengers as they walk along the CTA tracks at 14th Street and Wabash Avenue Sunday, after an "L" train which had been chartered by railroad enthusiasts derailed. The train was chartered by the Illinois Railway Museum as a fundraiser for the museum. No one was injured.

Firefighters help guide passengers as they walk along the CTA tracks at 14th Street and Wabash Avenue Sunday, after an "L" train which had been chartered by railroad enthusiasts derailed. The train was chartered by the Illinois Railway Museum as a fundraiser for the museum. No one was injured. (Nancy Stone, Chicago Tribune)

An elevated CTA train that had been chartered by railroad enthusiasts as a fund-raising effort for a railroad museum derailed today in the South Loop and resulted in 40 people having to walk to the nearest train station, officials said.

The train was chartered by the Illinois Railway Museum as a fundraiser for the McHenry County institution which was hoping to purchase a similar older train car, according to members.

CTA officials said the passengers were walked from the train by Chicago Fire Department personnel along the elevated tracks to the station at 22 East Roosevelt Rd., said Steve Mayberry, a CTA spokesman. The derailment occurred on the elevated tracks at about 11:22 a.m., officials said.

"It wound up being something different. We now have a unique story to tell," said Daniel Boylan, 46, from Brookfield, a rail buff who was on the train.

The railroad enthusiasts paid $100 to ride the 4-car train from the 1960s and 1970s era, officials said. They began riding the trains at 9 a.m. this morning in Forest Park and had hoped to ride through the city and return to that location at 6 p.m., officials said.

The train was moving northbound when it attempted to cross over to the middle tracks; preliminary information indicates that a wheel in a rear train car may have left the track and caused the minor derailment, Mayberry said. The age of the trains is not believed to have played a factor, he said.

The train stayed on the elevated tracks. Officials are attempting to get the train car back on the tracks, said Mayberry.

While the other riders had to walk to the station at Roosevelt and Wabash, Boylan and his friend Harold Krewer, 50, of Addison, were removed from the tracks with a fire truck cherry-picker apparatus because Krewer has difficulty walking. Others were walked across railway down to the station at Roosvelt and Wabash…they have not all come out yet.

Many of the people on board were or are professional railway people including Krewer a retired Amtrak employee.

Boylan, who is a museum member, said that the ride “got very bumpy," but he said there was no chaos.

“When I got up this morning I didnt think i’d get a ride in a firetruck,” Krewer said. “I have to say that was a pretty neat little diversion today.”

Boylan and Krewer said the riders, who are railroad buffs, took it in stride.

“We were all just cool about it,” Krewer said. “Ok it derailed, they’ll figure out what we’re going to do next.”

An EMS Plan 1 response calling for multiple ambulances to the scene was called as a precaution, officials said.

Officials had cut power to the trains as people walk along the tracks toward the train station, according to officials and witnesses.

CTA officials had suspended service between Halsten and the Loop on the Orange Line and between 35th Street and Adams/Wabash on the Green line, according to the CTA Website.

The trains were taken off duty and normal service was later resumed.

There were no injuries reported.

A similar derailment occured on Dec. 19, 2006 when an Orange Line 4-car train carrying about 150 people also derailed at the same location. There were no serious injuries reported at that time either.

Officials at that time said they believe a switching problem was the cause of that derailment. A switch had been activated before the derailment occured as the train completed its move from the middle track to the northbound outside track near 14th Street and Wabash Avenue.

Two of those cars made the the switch but the second two cars failed to make the transition, CTA officials said at the time.

A burst of thunderstorm activity across the Chicago area in Sunday afternoon resulted in multiple injuries and a death at an event in west suburban Wood Dale, the collapse of a dome in northwest suburban Rosemont and the temporary evacuation of the music festival Lollapalooza in Grant Park downtown.